Ski

Sat. 12/4 3pm NBC Women's Slalom from Aspen Sat. 12/4 10pm OLN Women's GS Sun. 12/5 1pm Men's DH from Beaver Creek

Ah, what the Hell. Fire DaveK anyway.

I've never spent a lot for a waxing iron, but I do buy ones made for skis. They are flat and are curved up at the front, rather than a point. Always make sure you haven't nicked the bottom of your iron on an edge, or something. A damaged iron can really screw up bases. And always keep the iron moving and never smoke the wax.

Fluoro is added to the Hydrocarbon waxes to improve temperature range and glide. Not necessary unless you race, really. Most good brands cost about $8 for a 60 gram bar of hydrocarbon; $16 for low fluoro; $50 for high fluoro. For me, the best all around buy is getting the Toko combination pack of red and yellow for $12, or so. Waxes are color coded for the temperature they are suited for: blue for cold; red for medium; yellow for warm. There are others in between, but that's the basic range. So if red is for snow temps between 14 and 25 degrees, and yellow is good for temps between 25 and 32, you're all set. And fluoro is definitely not bad for bases. In fact, pure fluoro--which the 'Dude will be sprinkling on his bases and rubbing in over top of his wax on warm days--doesn't melt, so it only lays in a microscopic layer on your bases and rubs off after a single run. The PTFE he uses is in the Teflon family of chemicals. His skis will be non-stick and water repellent.

I know what you're saying. I leave a trail of blood sometimes when I'm carrying my race skis, the edges are so sharp that I cut my hands a lot. They teach that "more isn't necessarily better", but I hate the feeling of skidding on ice. When I bump skied (on straight skis), we used to detune the tails and tips and I always used the most convenient wax I could find. But the Zardoz web site kind of pisses me off when they devote a page to a kid that came up with a "great" idea that actually screws up ski/boards. I've been to races where people that can't carve a turn are rubbing $25 worth of pure fluoro on their bases. And they are just doing it because everyone else is.

Yeah, 'Dude, use a little base cleaner in the spot where you are going to repair. It makes it adhere better. And nobody has to wax. There's no rule about it. Anybody is welcome to let their boards oxidize. But this thread began with someone asking about waxing. Waxing isn't just for racing. Waxing makes your skis/boards glide and turn better. Bad edges are like driving a car that's out of alignment; no wax is like driving with underinflated tires.

There's no such thing as bad or dirty wax "inside" your board. Unless you are doing P-Tex repair work on a spot, there's no reason to dry out your board by using a cleaner. The only cleaning I'd recommend is to whipe your board down (especially when you get a warm spell and the snow reveals oil and other pollution), then hot wax and scrape. After hot waxing, you can stick your board outside to cool. A race-prep wax should be left overnight, but you can just wait a couple of hours for it to be cool. And as for the Zardoz instructions to regularly use a base cleaner: dumb. It makes no sense. As to Zardoz saying to stone grind perfectly flat, so their product works better: yikes! Stone grinding is a process used for a couple of reasons, such as when you get base high from your edges (the base seems convex), or when you need restructuring...stone grinding initially makes you slower, since it creates tiny hills and valleys in your base that are sharp at first, especially if you don't use a bronze/steel brush to smooth them down a bit. But a base needs the texture in the bottom. They are water channels that keep suction from building up. You want the water to pass smoothly along under your base. A perfectly flat base would work like a suction cup. So Zardoz is saying to create a flat base that will be sticky, but use their product to fix that problem. 'Dude's suggestion of a Swix F4X Universal paste is a much better quick prep way to go. Or crayon on a regular wax and cork it in, then scrape.

'Dude, bad news: Vermont Open SL - 12/5/2004

and a couple of us on the board are off to this: FIS run at Sugarbush... sry, 'Dude!

Thoughtful, expensive ones.

I'd be interested in having 'Dude go to the zardoznotwax.com website and read about the Felix Process for combining Zardoz with traditional waxes. They say to use a wax cleaner to remove all wax from your base. Then to stone grind perfectly flat because any structure makes you slow and wears off the Zardoz too quickly. It sure seems like you are ruining your board to go fast for a short time, if you follow directions carefully.

We expect presents when you get back.

I'd think that if you were entering a comp, that you want more than ever to have real wax on your bases. If it's cold or rough snow, Zardoz will rub off in 20 feet.

<and that ranking list i am assuming is compiled from last years world cup wins? i'm not all too knowledgeable when it comes to racing, but i do know that bode did not si atomics last year. he skiied rossis.> ***The list is the current standings from this year's World Cup. They've had three races, so far. And last year's list looked pretty much the same. For years, Atomic has had the most success. <what makes atomics so much faster than any other ski? the only thing that makes one ski straight up faster than another is the coefficient of friction it has with the snow, which is directly related to the structure of the base, the type of snow you are skiing, and the temp that your wax melts at in relation to that of the snow.> ***How many slalom races are won because of ski wax and base quality? None. GS? Few. So half of all ski races have NOTHING to do with wax and base quality. Technical races are won because of turn quality, far more than anything else. As we've said before, racers get the best sintered base material, which is especially important in DH and SG. That's why speed event racers freak when they crash their best skis. They may have 15 pair, but usually just one fast set. The Austrians have dominated speed events on Atomic because they get the best base material, best wax room guys, and the best racers. <another thing you have to consider is that everyone on that list is getting skis built for them. the general public does not ski on the same ski that bode miller does. regardless of how good of a skiier anyone on this site is, myself included, i doubt anyone could ski bode's downhill or super g ski the way it is intended to be skiied, because they come straight out of the race room, much stiffer than anything available to the public. just because a company makes great world cup race skis does not mean they inherently make the best consumer ski.> ***You rag on Atomic and say that the race room skis are nothing like 'off the racks', but just where do you think the technology from racing is applied? In off the rack gear. My 9.16's are almost identical to race room; so were my 9.12's. But so what if my GS skis are a little softer flexing than race room? I could have bought race room, but our gates are tighter and courses shorter than World Cup. You match the ski to the course. Atomic GS:11 off the rack skis are great skis because of the technology handed down from race testing and the quality of information racers supply the engineers.

Yep. Base cleaners should only be used when you do repair work. They are evil. Clean your bases by using a cheap wax and hot waxing/scraping. Zardoz is topical and doesn't sink in. You'll ski/ride it off in a couple of runs. It's sure better than nothing, but think of like a sunscreen: Zardoz gives you a 1 UV protection, while a each hotwax gives you a 10 UV protection.

One of the things that separates Bode from other racers is his ability to describe to ski engineers what he wants changed about his skis. He customizes his skis to adapt to his style more than anyone.

Again, it's the skier, not the skis. But if you were a World Cup racer, wouldn't you tend to first look at a company that poured the most money into research and development, as well as being able to convert your requests into a new ski in the fastest time? Wouldn't you look for the most flexible ski brand that was willing to bust their asses to get you a new ski in 10 days that has more of something and less of something else? Yes, they are all paid commensurate to their past and expected results. Some skiers, though, are more loyal than others to brands that have gotten them to the top. 'Dude, if Volkl starts giving you five pairs of skis right now for free, wouldn't you think twice about signing a deal with Rossi later on? Off the shelf models fit different people in different ways. You've demoed more than most, so you know what's best for you. And my ex-racer and most of her team also chose Volkl.

Volkl is tied for last place with, uh, zero points.

Current World Cup men's standings and the skis they use (Volkl doesn't seem to be represented):

They are showing one race a week---which is half of what they had last year--on Saturdays at 10pm, then re-running it at 1am, Sunday, and again Wednesday night. A few years ago, OLN ran two mens and two womens races every weekend. NBC has a few races, too, but they spend 15 minutes doing fluff crap and only showing racers that finish in the top 20. The quality of NBC coverage is amazing, with great camera work and all the best technology...it's just that they don't give a crap about presenting it as a race as opposed to an event.

I think it was three years ago that Greek Peak opened really early, so we hit it for the first time. Man, is it in the boonies, or at least it seemed. But any mountain that tries to open early is a good one...

12/4.

And it sucks to have three different sports channels covering freaking poker and not a mention of a World Cup race. When the F did cards become a sport?

It's the skier, not the skis, but it's sorts fun to see pics like that.

This weather=